Remember Prince of Persa (2008)?

[Winter]

This is a game I've had in my library for a long time now and it's one that I don't often play but still overall really enjoy. A Reboot of the Prince of Persia series that was meant to kick off a new Trilogy POP 08 was a game that was overall well received but sadly didn't get nearly as much praise as Ubisoft was likely hoping for and while it sold decently it wasn't the big hit it was likely being built up as. The game only got one DLC and one spin-off game before quietly slipping away from people's memories to the point that most don't even know it exists.

And that's a real shame as the game is honestly really fun and has a lot of elements I would like to see more of. The game's companion is, IMO, the best companion in an open world game. Elika has all your move sets in traversal, has her own unique set of moves to help you advance through the game and her own unique set of combat skills that are completely under your control. She never gets in your way and will, in fact, easily move around you so you can continue moving along through the world.

The combat is also enjoyable and does something that I RARELY see in games with sword combat. One thing that always bugs me about using any bladed weapon in video games, be it a Katana or a Lightsaber is that you will often hit people with it directly and it BARELY does any real damage to them. These are weapons that are design to cut through felt and in some cases steel and yet most of the time they usually only get a few cuts.

Sometimes you'll get a game that avoids this like the Jedi Academy games or some games will at least humor you by having your opponent actually BLOCKING your strikes like in some Zelda games (Wind Waker, Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword) but for the most part enemies almost never block an attack and will need to be hit at least 20 times before they even start to show real signs of damage.

But POP 08 avoids this completely as every hit you make with your sword the enemy is ALWAYS shown blocking it with their own weapon while attacks from Elika (the aforementioned companion) and your gauntlet have different animations from your sword attacks. The game also usually takes ledges into account as you can end a fight but just pushing your enemy to the ledge and after a brief struggle you can just kick them off into the abyss. You almost never see that as the edge of the platform there is almost always an invisible wall so it's just dressing to help add an atmosphere instead of being something you can use or something that can be used against you.

The game has also aged BEAUTIFULLY with a graphic choice to make the everything look like it was a painting instead of going for more realistic textures like some other games do. While it does show it's age with how the characters move and talk during cutscenes for the most part it still looks as good as it did when it was first released back in 2008 while games like Assassin's Creed 1 through 4 have aged rather poorly by comparison.

However, I think the reason the game isn't that well remembered is mostly due to one thing, the story. Characters wise while Elika and the Prince are fine their nothing really to write home about with the Prince being pretty much Nathan Drake without any of the elements that made him such a memorable character and Elika spends most of the game getting ready for her heroic sacrifice. There's not really any development with these two as they're largely the same people they were at the start with only slight differences at the end.

And the plot... One problem with the game is that it tries to give players as much freedom as possible. You can go almost anywhere, get any power in any order you want and advance the story in the direction that you want but the problem is it's only the literal direction as the story of each mission is EXACTLY the same with no real difference between them. All the dialogue with the 5 of the six main villains is just a repeat of the one conversation with each of them.

The Concubine flirts with the Prince while mocking Elika, the Alchemist goes on about how he'll live forever and you will die in vain, the Warrior says how fighting Ahriman is pointless and tells the heroes to give up or run, Ahriman goes on about he will soon be free and that there is no stopping him and the Hunter roars. The Mourning King is the only villain with dialogue that continues to change as the story goes on as he succumbs to Ahriman's control while trying to hold onto his humanity but even this has a sense of repetition as he tries to convince Elika to give up and except Ahriman will win no less then 3 times.

To take a look at the heroes and why they fall flat let's take a look at Uncharted The Lost Legacy. The story is ultimately about Chloe & Nadine and them going from co-workers to Maybe something more (I mean Chloe dose seem to almost be flirting with her and Naughty Dog hasn't exactly done anything to discourge fans from shipping these two (good thing)) but this relationship is interesting as it's given time to grow and the two come to trust each other and even hit a few rough points.

So at the end when Chloe offers Nadine to become her partner in adventuring it feels earned and you end up cheering for the two basically getting together.

But the Prince and Elika... They meet and then after knowing each other for less then an hour they start flirting with each other and that's pretty much 99% of their dialogue with the remaining 1% being Elika trying to avoid questions about how she has her powers and how she will have to except her fate.

Because the plot has no true set path and you can go in any direction you want with no location having any ongoing story like what we would get in say a BioWare game this results in all the characters getting stuck in a rut that none of them are able to escape. You can learn more about the backstory of everyone but Backstory doesn't mean anything if no one can more forward.

And there there's the other problem... The Ending.

The ending of this game isn't the worst out there but it's still pretty bad mainly because the game doesn't really give you any choice to end other then undo all the work you've done. Sure, you can choose to end the game right after the final battle but the fact that the game goes on about the choices you make AND that the Prince basically willingly sacrifices the whole world just to save one person is one of the worst tropes out there. I hated it in The Last Jedi, I hated it in Jupiter Ascending and I hate it here.

The idea that someone will let the world burn to just to save one person, one person who is likely not long for this world now that you've doomed it, makes you a villain. When I first played the game I TRIED to leave but the game wouldn't let me unless I doomed everyone to save Elika which was going against what she clearly wanted in favor of what the Prince wanted.

So, when the DLC came out and Elika was clearly 110% done with him I was on her side and was amazed at how much BS the Prince cooked up to make his choice seem like the right one AND Blamed Elika for putting him in this situation. Nate was an @$$hole but even he drew the line in sacrifcing the whole world over one person because he knew right from wrong and knew what his loved ones would want. He can be selfish, he can be rude but he is a good husband, son, friend and brother to those around him and the Prince misses that point which I only bring up because the game was obviously trying to make him a Nathan Drake Expy.

Still, I do enjoy this game for all things it got right and hope it gets a bit more attention in the future. At the very least I want more games with sword fights to emulate this game instead just continuing to treat swords like aggression bats and for more open world games to have a companion like Elika.

[CharlesPhipps]

The ending of this game isn't the worst out there but it's still pretty bad mainly because the game doesn't really give you any choice to end other then undo all the work you've done. Sure, you can choose to end the game right after the final battle but the fact that the game goes on about the choices you make AND that the Prince basically willingly sacrifices the whole world just to save one person is one of the worst tropes out there. I hated it in The Last Jedi, I hated it in Jupiter Ascending and I hate it here.

A couple of things here:

1. Jupiter Ascending makes it clear she will NOT let Earth be destroyed for her family as a direct rebuttal to the trope.

2. Part of the reason the game works for me is that the Prince makes the more emotionally dramatic decision and bluntly probably the correct one. The Princess is going to sacrifice herself but Ahrimane is not going to be imprisoned forever. She's buying time when they should probably be working to slay the monster-god outright.

I generally think suicidal impulses should not be indulged whenever possible.

3. Frankly, I'm so sick of HEROIC SACRIFICE in video games, anyone who says, "You know, fuck these people I don't know and don't care about" gets my stamp of approval.

[Winter]

2. Part of the reason the game works for me is that the Prince makes the more emotionally dramatic decision and bluntly probably the correct one. The Princess is going to sacrifice herself but Ahrimane is not going to be imprisoned forever. She's buying time when they should probably be working to slay the monster-god outright.

I generally think suicidal impulses should not be indulged whenever possible.

3. Frankly, I'm so sick of HEROIC SACRIFICE in video games, anyone who says, "You know, fuck these people I don't know and don't care about" gets my stamp of approval.

I agree, there's just a couple of issues in regards to how POP 08 handles it IMO. One, because the Prince has unleashed Ahriman upon the world countless people are going to die and sooner rather then later. Two, while she should have told him so they could work something out the best option here was for the Prince to locate and find anyone and everyone who could help him find a way to stop Ahriman on a more permanent basis. Ahriman would have been imprisoned for at least another thousand years which is more then enough time to try and locate people who could help you stop a God, and God he and Elika already defeated.

But instead, the Prince chooses to risk the whole world by freeing Ahriman to save someone he JUST met and damn everyone else. And while he states that now they have a fighting chance, while the world is literally falling apart around them, when Elika is out of earshot he says, and I quote, "I Had to pick a Princess". And again, he keeps trying to shift the blame to everyone but himself and says that he didn't set Ahriman free. ASSHOLE we saw you do it! He started the apocalypse and now he's trying to avoid the consequences of his actions.

Should Elika have told the Prince what she planned to do, yes. Was the Prince acting on emotions rather then thinking things through, also yes. But in the end he is still choosing to let God knows how many people die in estrange for one person.

And finally there's the final moments in the DLC Epologue. After spending the whole DLC outright refusing to own up to his mistake and when his main excuse as to why he save Elika falls apart (Elika fails to purge the corruption from her father and Ahriman barely sees them as a threat, only trying to kill them because of the first seal attempt the Prince tries to convince Elika to just run away and let the world burn.

It's Elika who chooses to go on a quest to stop Ahriman and save the world because now it's the only way to undo the Prince's mistake, a mistake he keeps trying to avoid the blame for.

This is just how I see it but for me the Prince is no better then Rose Tico was in The Last Jedi as his choice is not driven by thinking about the greater picture but by his own selfish needs as stated in the text of the game itself.